"To be determined," an exhibition by François Sabourin, the 2021–22 Schidlowski Emerging Faculty Fellow at Kent State University. Image by Zelig Fok/Courtesy of François Sabourin.

Academic fellowships provide unique opportunities for designers and researchers to explore specific topics of interest while teaching. Archinect's Fellow Fellows series showcases individuals who are currently in or have recently finished an architecture fellowship. 

For our latest interview, we're featuring François Sabourin, the 2021–22 Schidlowski Emerging Faculty Fellow at Kent State University. Sabourin discusses his fellowship experience as he explored "architecture's relationship with uncertainty." Themes from the works of Georgios Eftaxiopoulos, Douglas Spencer, and Axel Kilian inspired Sabourin to develop "To be determined," an exhibition consisting of robotic walls that "interact in scripted yet unpredictable ways with visitors." As an emerging faculty fellow, Sabourin reflected on his pathway as an educator and how this fellowship helped expand his perspectives as an instructor.

Can you share with us your academic journey and interests?

Generally speaking, I’ve been interested in architecture’s relationship with uncertainty. Buildings are such long-term commitments, so uncertainty poses a particular challenge to our discipline. How do we, as architects, ignore, amplify, or simply try to cope with uncertainty?

This interest started in earnest in graduate school, where my thesis touched upon topics of reuse, adaptability, and, more broadly, time. Shortly after graduating, I went to McGill University to teach and continued to explore these themes in the studios I taught. I also started a collaboration with my partner Kate Yeh Chiu, which we call yyyy-mm-dd. The name captures our interest in time, reflects how we date our files, and for a while, we were content being unsearchable on the internet. In 2019, we exhibited a project at the Oslo Architecture Triennale that was a provocation on material reuse and possible circular economies.

What fellowship were you in, and what motivated you to apply?

I was the 2021–22 Schidlowski Emerging Faculty Fellow at Kent State University, which was a great program for me. Like many people who consider fellowships, I had some ideas rattling around my brain since graduate school that I hoped to dedicate time to. I also wanted to use my time efficiently. Some fellowships and visiting professorships stretch out for longer periods of time and have less defined expectations, which is great if that's what you're seeking. At Kent State, the fellowship runs for 9 months and comes with a relatively set expectation of a final exhibition, and I appreciated the focus that was provided.

After a few years of combining adjunct teaching roles with professional practice, an opportunity to dedicate myself full-time and intensely to teaching and research was appealing. I was lucky to be able to do that in a school that offered the company of a lot of early-career academics that are given a good amount of room to explore their own research agendas through teaching.

...I’ve been interested in architecture’s relationship with uncertainty. Buildings are such long-term commitments, so uncertainty poses a particular challenge to our discipline. How do we, as architects, ignore, amplify, or simply try to cope with uncertainty?

What was the focus of your fellowship research? What did you produce, teach, or exhibit?

I spent my year exploring the idea of flexibility in architecture, in large part because, as a concept, it's used both profusely and very loosely in architectural practice and discourse. There’s been recent scholarship on the topic, I think in particular of Georgios Eftaxiopoulos and Douglas Spencer, who have written separately on flexibility’s entanglements with control and power. There is also an interesting connection to unpack between some early avatars of flexibility in architecture, like the Burolandschaft projects of the postwar period, with the development and application of early computing systems. My project took cues from and explored these themes primarily through building full-scale architectural prototypes and simple software.

This research led up to an exhibition in Kent State’s Armstrong Gallery. I built a set of robotic walls that could interact in scripted yet unpredictable ways with visitors. This was an evolution of a project I did in graduate school in a studio taught by Axel Kilian (now at MIT), who has been a strong influence on my work in general.

"To be Determined" exhibition. Video courtesy of François Sabourin.

A set of hinged wall assemblies were equipped with cameras, door closers, and caster wheels, so they could move autonomously and relatively freely. The room was essentially filled with a shifting poché that reacted to people but also imposed certain behaviors upon visitors.

Alongside this research, I taught courses on change and flexibility. The first course was an undergraduate studio titled “On Shifting Ground” about designing architecture in a changing environment, specifically an abandoned quarry on Kelley's Island, just west of Cleveland. The students built large sandboxes in which to place their models, which was great fun. I also taught a graduate studio that interrogated reuse and employed the interactive storytelling software “Twine.” The final projects presented open-ended, “choose-your-own-adventure” narratives where critics could explore different futures for a building. Finally, I taught a seminar titled “About Time!” where students turned observations of change in the built environment into small web-based games. There was a lot of variety, but most emphasized maintenance and waiting — one game was about watching paint dry, another about tending a garden.

How has this fellowship advanced or become a platform for your academic and professional career?

At a practical level, it was an exceptional opportunity to test out my ideas at full scale and in the classroom. A lot of my interests require some form of institutional support simply because of the size of the objects and their interactive nature. It’s hard to explore certain ideas through only drawings, and it's difficult to find the resources and space to build large prototypes. Kent State was very supportive in terms of time, space, and financial support, in a way that meant I didn’t have to compromise my ambitions very much. Most importantly, however, my time there allowed me to connect with a community of academics and designers that I keep in touch with.

...many fellowships bring you into a new geography for a short time, and in that way, they’re almost like immersion programs.

What’s something you wish you knew before diving into this fellowship?

It’s an obvious statement, but many fellowships bring you into a new geography for a short time, and in that way, they’re almost like immersion programs. The Midwest/Great Lakes region, where I was, is quite dense with architecture schools, and many of those institutions have a high proportion of young faculty with experimental practices, including other fellows. It makes the region an exciting place to be. There was a lot to explore — and people to meet — all relatively close by. It's not necessarily something that you need to be prepared for, but it's perhaps something to be excited for when one considers fellowships.

When teaching your studio, what’s a question you wish more students asked you?

My students were really very inquisitive, and one of the best questions they would ask, in one form or another, was: How can I learn more about this project on my own and make it my own? After some time in architecture school, educators and students come to take the project-based nature of studio for granted, but when considered within higher education in general, it’s an exceptional kind of learning experience that affords students the opportunity to quickly become experts on a specific topic. In essence, studios can become a little bit like independent study courses. It speaks to the generalist nature of the profession, and I think that students usually find the approach motivating.

After some time in architecture school, educators and students come to take the project-based nature of studio for granted, but when considered within higher education in general, it’s an exceptional kind of learning experience that affords students the opportunity to quickly become experts on a specific topic.

What’s your favorite memory during your fellowship experience?

There was a really delightful moment when the exhibition opened, and people started coming in and interacting in a very playful way with this weird thing I had been working on for months. I was also just relieved that the installation actually worked. Whether the project will perform is always a question when making technical pieces that are not static.

What are your future plans/next steps once you complete your fellowship?

I’m not quite done thinking about flexibility, indeterminacy, and, more broadly, architecture’s ways of coping with uncertainty. For me, there’s a certain sense of urgency to further explore those ideas, given their relationship with the material and environmental impacts of our buildings. I'm currently devoting time to professional practice but also carving out time for more experimental projects that I'll pursue through yyyy-mm-dd.

Archinect's Take 5 with François Sabourin

Favorite book you’ve read in the past three years (can be non-architectural)

Mémoires d'Hadrien by Marguerite Yourcenar.

What’s your go-to “work outfit”?

Inspired by my partner Kate, I’ve embraced the socks-in-sandals look since grad school.

Coffee or tea?

Drip coffee

Favorite architecture word/term?

Box

If you didn’t pursue architecture, what career/industry would you work in?

I think I’d be a teacher, just in another discipline.

*Are you a current fellow? We'd love to hear from you. Reach out for a chance to participate in Archinect's Fellow Fellows series.